August 11, 2011

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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and a handful of Republicans agree on at least one thing: Meetings of the congressional super committee on deficit reduction should be open to the public.

Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) and Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) sent letters Thursday to each of the 12 newly appointed members of the bipartisan panel, urging that they conduct their meetings in public and allow them to be broadcast live on television. At least five other GOP senators have also called for the group to hold their meetings in public.

Last week, Pelosi called for the super committee’s meetings to be open to the public and aired online. She named the final three members of the panel earlier Thursday, appointing Democratic Reps. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, Xavier Becerra of California and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland.
The law that raised the debt limit and created the deficit panel does not require the meetings to be public. But under the law, the committee must notify the public at least seven days in advance of holding a meeting or hearing.

“This is a pivotal point in our nation’s history. The critical decisions made by the joint committee should be conducted under the watchful eye of the American people,” Buchanan said in a statement.

“[T]he American people deserve a responsive government that is fully accountable,” added Heller. “Most Americans would agree that because of the magnitude of the decisions this committee has been tasked with, proceedings should be transparent and open to the public.”

Heller has introduced legislation that would require all meetings of the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction to be open to the public and broadcast on television. Buchanan rolled out a companion bill in the House.

Posted by Scott Wong 03:35 PM

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Everyone better start working together before we see what is happening in the UK. Reform the tax bill in order to tax the rich and I don't mean the ones just making 250K. How about Immelt and Soros. When will that happen? Oh, I forgot they are Obamas friends!!!

All three Democratic Congressional representatives are HACKS with no business or financial background. I lived in Chris' District, like Becerra, he has a good TV persona, but no intellectual depth. Clyburn is an embarassment he's so uneducated and just plain dumb. This shows San Francisco based Pelosi is a prisoner of the worst our party has to offer. So sad!

I like transparency in government, and want the public to be able to comment on what the committee plans to do. However, I am concerened that if all the meetings are public, the politicians and lobbyists will criticize any sign of compromise, destroying any hope we have for a real solution.

While it should be on television it won't because no one on the committee actually writes legislation...that happened in the old days, today our representatives speak in sound bites only and that would be boring day after day. The real work will be done by the committees who are usually made up of lobbyists and soon to be lobbyists. The resulting legislation will be reduced to the usual big sound bites for the committee members but will actually be filled with thousands of pages of legalese that will crave out favors and exceptions, real reforms will be diluted with loopholes and pushed well into the future. It will have no impact on the economy, that is the real economy out here in the real world and unemployment will remain as it is but both parties will be pointing fingers at each other just in time for election time.
These days Washington is about money and power and politics and has nothing to do with governing.
Welcome to the Plutocracy as we go not the way of Greece but Russia.

I disagree. All the members will be playing to the cameras and not trying to negotiate. It is a sure way to cause the penalty plan to be triggered. Van Hollen hasn't had an original thought in years. Without the Demo talking points in front of him he is a blank teleprompter. As for Clyburn, lets just say we need someone with a brain and knows budget processes like Chas. Rangel.

I can't believe you idiotic people espousing taxing the rich more & the corporations. Some of these people are paying 70%, what we need is the remaining 50% of you who don't pay taxes to fork up your share.
Taxes are not the solution, less government is the solution. Get rid of these oafs including the President who think the solution to the debt problem is to spend more money. He has already spent $267,000 per job that he created thru his jobs program, he has created more debt since the times of George Washington & I am tired of paying for lazy people with their hands out for my tax dollars. Go to work & make your own money. Get the taxes off of business & create more jobs by allowing businesses to stay in business.